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A Day At The Races

Caley Sturgill | April 17, 2019

Topics: behind the scenes, Michael Millions, Mickie James, Municipal Waste, nascar, Nickelus F, pro wrestling, richmond raceway, RVA, RVA Magazine, tony foresta, toyota owners 400, Valient Himself, Valient Thorr, WWE

While the history of NASCAR may lie in the bootlegging, blockade-running days of Prohibition in Appalachia, today’s races marry the sport’s moonshining, outlaw-racing origins with the modern world. Racing in 2019 invites folks to fly their own flags alongside the colorful and checkered symbols of its own, encouraging fans old and new to experience the excitement from all walks of life.

With a group of our own first-timers and favorite Richmonders, RVA Magazine took to the track last Saturday, April 13, for Richmond Raceway’s Toyota Owners 400, right here in our own River City. WWE star Mickie James, Municipal Waste’s Tony Foresta, rapper Nickelus F, Valient Himself of Valient Thorr, and rapper Michael Millions joined our team with a common purpose: Fast cars, big thrills.

PHOTO: Stuart Mauck

No two tracks may be the same, but Richmond brings something special to the table for both drivers and fans. Our track, smaller in comparison to multi-mile raceways like Talladega or Daytona, makes for tighter turns and higher difficulty (i.e., more fun). On the other side of the fence, Richmond Raceway has a yellow brick road of sorts, manifested in an access tunnel for the public that lets lucky fans catch the race from inside the track.

Among the lucky, our crew got to walk the “road under the road,” stepping out on the other side of the tunnel into the center of the infield.

PHOTO: Stuart Mauck

The newest adaptations of the cars, whose glory days of the 60s and 70s only pushed out about 250-300 horsepower, have more than doubled: Richmond Raceway’s track allows for cars that pack around 750.

Gearing up for the race, fans piled in from around the country as early as 6am last Tuesday morning. Campers, trucks, tents, and golf carts lined the fields around the raceway to tailgate and celebrate, with the same excitement that sparked with the sport decades ago.

RVA Magazine – Nascar 2019

With a special mural dedication before the race, NASCAR honored a treasured local artist, Sam Bass, who called Richmond his home and worked with the organization for years before passing away earlier this year. The mural, which can be found in the raceway’s media center here in town, drives home the importance of Bass to the racing community throughout the years.

The Richmond Raceway grounds are home to more than the track; they hosted events all weekend, including public Driver/Crew Chief Meetings, Toyota Thrill rides, Virginia Lottery giveaways, and a Craft Beer Fest full of breweries from around the state.

If you’re planning to hop in the Toyota thriller next time around, make sure you’re not weak of heart or stomach — in stock Camrys, fans can hop in with professional drivers to have the guts scared right out of them in twists, turns, burnouts, and close calls with the wall, all designed to bring your breakfast back up (and still have you jumping back in line for another round).

PHOTO: Branden Wilson

Down in the infield, pit crews line the track, while fans full of beer and Larry’s Lemonade gather at the gates to watch the action. Each car and driver are unique to their own specs, but experience reigns supreme.

PHOTO: Branden Wilson

“While the entry point for NASCAR might seem intimidating for first-time race-goers, the experience is unlike any other sport,” wrote RVA Magazine managing partner Landon Shroder following last September’s Federated Auto Parts 400 at the track. “And unlike other forms of motorsports, NASCAR is unique in that there is a certain level of egalitarianism to the way the teams are structured. What this means, in real terms, is that unlike Formula-1, the NASCAR team with the most money is not always likely to win.”

“For instance, NASCAR regulates just how big the engine can be, limiting the size to 358 cubic inches, restricting the amount of horsepower an engine can produce. This ultimately makes the racing experience more about driver competency, rather than dollars spent on high tech racing gear. Because of these rules, the leaders of the race change frequently – sometimes with multiple race leaders on a single lap.”

PHOTO: Stuart Mauck

Every point of the track during a race brings a unique experience to the table. From the infield, the behind-the-scenes area gives a personal look at crews working while drivers rush on around you. The Richmond Raceway has tickets for regular seating and infield access to open the thrill to fans of all kinds, and from above the track and along the straightaway, the speed of the cars can feel unbelievable as drivers accelerate by in colorful blurs with each passing second.

PHOTO: Stuart Mauck

Until you’ve seen it in person, the excitement of the days-long party that surrounds professional stock car races is hard to imagine in its full fire — and like all things Richmond, the raceway holds a part of our culture that can’t be found anywhere but here. With a case of beer in arm and a ticket in hand, a day at the track is an experience like no other in the River City.

The 400 race is returning this fall. We’ll see you there.

PHOTO: Stuart Mauck
PHOTO: Stuart Mauck
PHOTO: Stuart Mauck
PHOTO: Stuart Mauck
PHOTO: Stuart Mauck
PHOTO: Stuart Mauck
PHOTO: Branden Wilson
PHOTO: Branden Wilson

RVA Global: Seven Wonders of the Modern World

Madelyne Ashworth | April 8, 2019

Topics: Asia, elephants, hiking, Himalayan mountains, homosexuality in India, Iceland, India, Paris, riding the bus, RVA 36, RVA Magazine, teaching, world travel

*This article originally appeared in RVA Mag #36, on the streets now at all your favorite spots.

The most difficult part about traveling is the people you must leave behind.

Other things can also go wrong: missing planes, losing luggage, items stolen, food sickness, uncomfortable weather, fear of strangers, looking like an outsider, feeling unsafe… they’re all most likely going to happen. When traveling to a new place, especially by yourself — and even more so as an American, whose exposure to hardship is less than most of the world — mishaps occur.

You learn to deal with them, and then you learn about yourself, learn navigation, gain confidence. But if you do it right, at the end of your journey, you’ll discover that “finding yourself,” that age-old obsession, is not the best or most significant part of travel. Rather, it is connecting with people in a real and meaningful way, even while recognizing you may never see them again.

The most important moments in travel are not the ones that connect you with yourself, but the moments that link you with others. Modern media, especially the ubiquitous travel blogs, have created a self-indulgent idea of solo travel as a vehicle for narcissistic soul-searching. Seeing international travel through this lens distracts us from even the most basic level of mindful immersion. Traveling alone should not mean that one exclusively travels inwardly.

What becomes memorable and meaningful is subjective. Your takeaways will vary. Here are some of mine.

1. Knowing that a day at the temple leaves your palms smelling of herbs and spices, cardamom and coconut water.

Last fall, I took a three month journey to Asia by myself — but this was not a backpacking trip. I spent two months living and working in Bangalore, India, then part of another month exploring Vietnam. I took ten days at the end of this journey to visit a few European countries. While living in Bangalore, India, I worked at the Happy Kids Institute, an after-school program for children with learning differences like dyslexia, ADHD, and autism: all disabilities that are regarded in India either as taboo or as outright fabrications.

I spent my time at the institute interviewing and documenting teachers and students, and working daily with the 12- to 14-year-olds. I lived in an apartment with the woman who owns and operates the school, thanks to her generosity and to knowing her son as my college roommate. It was an incredible offer I couldn’t possibly refuse, and it gave me the ability to immerse myself in Indian culture, traveling through the country on holidays and weekends. It was, indeed, immersive.

I woke up each day at 6 a.m. for yoga and meditation. I know how cliché that sounds, but I’m not kidding. I’d go into the courtyard of the apartment complex in which I lived to do yoga alongside many others doing the exact same — old, young, men, women. This is a way of life here.

Then I’d come inside and watch as my hostess carried out her daily Hindu prayers, make Indian food with her, dress in an Indian tunic, and head to the school to help prepare lessons for the day. That level of immersion was, in some ways, difficult. These were not clothes I would normally wear, knowing that at home they’d either be seen as a novelty or as cultural appropriation.

As a woman in Southern India, I was expected to dress, talk, and act like Southern Indian women do. It was easier that way. Last year, the Thomson Reuters Foundation found India to be the most dangerous nation in the world for sexual violence against women. Wearing long, loose pants and Indian tunics was a protective measure — those clothes felt like armor, and soon I felt strangely naked if I wasn’t wearing them in public. That feeling took several weeks to wear off, even after I left India.

So, yes, immersing myself into Southern Indian culture could include some fear, some discomfort, some unfamiliarity. But it was worth it to come together each morning with strangers in meditation, to be included in holiday celebrations. It was worth it to learn to cook Indian food each night, discussing Indian customs and education with the strong-willed, kind, and intelligent woman who hosted me. It was worth it to spend days in Hindu temples and understand why cows are sacred (Shiva), why Ganesha has an elephant’s head, why Durga is a badass. It was worth learning how to bless myself with herbed water, learning about energy and balance, about arranged marriage, village farming, the cruciality of a healthy corn harvest.

2. Perceiving the joy and pleasure when a child recognizes they are capable of learning; experiencing their open curiosity firsthand.

I am being bombarded.

“What does your house look like?” “Where do you live?” “Do your streets look like ours?” “Do you live with your mom?” “Are there loose dogs everywhere in America?” “What do the cars look like?”

To keep up with the questions, I pull out the school atlas and find some pictures on my phone. I show them the tiny dot on the map that is Richmond, Virginia, pictures of my backyard, of my mother, of American cars. Chetan, Kavana, Lakshmi, and some of the younger ones whose names I don’t know, crowd around the little desk. Their questions become more complicated and in-depth, asking about cultural differences, religion, and the American school system.

The intelligence these children display — despite the prejudice they face from teachers, family, and friends due to their learning differences — never fails to astound me. Many Indians in older generations still think in context of the caste system, slotting these children into a lower social position, and setting them up for failure before they’re given a chance to prove they deserve any better. Happy Kids Institute gives them that chance.

“Maybe one day you’ll all have the chance to visit me in America,” I say. The smiles on their faces could light a city. 14-year-old Chetan and 12-year-old Kavana are brother and sister, orphaned as small children; they now live with their aunt and uncle. 14-year-old Lakshmi is the first person in her family to learn how to read.

If ever you have the chance to teach abroad, take it.

3. Sharing secrets with a total stranger at 10,000 feet above sea level.

The fog creeps up the Himalayan mountains everyday at 5 p.m. like a weary visitor come to rest for the night. The mountains are so tall, the fog is like a lap blanket below us. The air smells of mint and dew, and every single star comes out to wink the night away. The chai is all the sweeter after a six-hour trek, and our group of eleven gathers around a campfire at the base camp of Nag Tibba, the highest peak in the lower Himalayas of the Uttarakhand region.

A new friend and I had been joking throughout the day: bonding over art, writing, hiking, and superhero movies, laughing so hard my abdomen hurt. As the cold moved in and the aches of the day pushed everyone to bed, soon he and I were the only ones left awake.

“My boyfriend and I broke up last week,” he said, interrupting the silence. I waited. “I’m glad we did it. But this week has been hard.” Only me, the crickets, and the pack mules know the rest.

Homosexuality was decriminalized only this past September in India. Being gay in India is not easy. But heartbreak is heartbreak. When traveling, instances arise in which you become the side character in someone else’s story. Embrace them: being a listener is an underrated gift.

4. Standing next to an elephant; it doesn’t feel scary, but it does make one feel very small.

His back leg was irreparably broken after being crushed in a logging accident, and an abscess was embedded on his hip. He walked with a limp. He had been rescued from a logging company, and sent to the Elephant Conservation Center in Laos to live out his days with a disability that would prevent him from ever mating or socializing normally again. His sheer mass and height filled an astounding amount of space. The metaphorical space he occupied was overwhelming.

I couldn’t touch him — this was a conservation center, meant for rehabilitation, and contact was prohibited. Before I met him, I spent three hours walking around with one of the center’s organizers, learning the painstaking, meticulous processes — both legal and medical — that the center must carry out to protect these elephants. Regardless of the way it seems from afar, the solutions to another country’s socio-political and environmental crises are always a little more complicated than “Let’s boycott the elephant riding-tour companies.”

Cultural immersion isn’t always about people. Sometimes it’s about 12,000 pound elephants.

The author on a train in Vietnam. Photo by John Donegan

5. Always taking the city bus and second-class train car. They’ll teach you more about a place and its people than any museum.

It was like a barrage. For the past hour and a half, the entire train car had been empty, but at this small village stop somewhere outside Hanoi, a huge group of people making their way to the city piled in. Local Vietnamese, arms full of bags, dogs, luggage, and children, filled the entire car. Grandmothers corralled the little ones, men hurried into the quiet corners, students rode back to the city for the school week and finished homework left to the last minute. I smiled sympathetically at the girl poring over her math homework, because doing math homework at 6 p.m. on a Sunday is actually the worst. She smiled back.

Traveling to more than 50 places within the span of a year, as some other popular travel articles have advised, becomes nothing more than a to-do list. Yes, you’ll meet lots of people. You’ll see lots of things. But that’s never been my goal when traveling. I aspire to learn, to absorb, to connect. I want to spend at least two weeks in any single place, because anything less is a tourist trap.

I’m happy for those who have the opportunities and means to travel — granted, I am one of them. I work hard to earn what I can, and find ways to travel despite supporting myself alone. I’m accustomed to operating this way. But the world does not exist to support my self-indulgent quest to find myself.

Because that’s the thing. It isn’t about me.

Travel is what you accomplish while being present in a place. It’s about mindfulness, being careful to remember you’re a stranger, not presuming you’re welcome in any space, and respecting boundaries until told otherwise. Reach for immersion. If you have the choice between staying in one town for a few more days or traveling elsewhere to look at a national monument for two minutes, stay in the town. Don’t allow your travels to become a to-do list. Allow them to consume you. Ride the city bus.

6. Reconnecting with loved ones, even if they are thousands of miles away. And Paris is never a bad idea.

We meet at Opéra. We always meet at Opéra. There are five of us, five girls who met at school, all those years ago. We link arms in the cold and head down the street, speaking a weird mix of English and French that probably only we can decipher. No time has passed. We order hot chocolate — it’s the best in the world, and we don’t need wine to enjoy ourselves. This is home.

It’s okay to visit the same place twice. Maybe even three times. Maybe even annually.

7. Knowing that no matter where you go, you are never alone, because there is always someone who has felt loss in the same way you have.

On the island, his friends call him “Crazy Sven.” He laughs loud, photobombs every picture he can, makes dirty jokes, and lives by the motto that “Every day is a good day.” Sven is a real-life viking. His ancestry predates the 1100s, when Norsemen first landed on the brutal, beguiling landscape. He has been a search-and-rescue operative, radio reporter, mountaineer, photographer, mountain guide, and tour guide.

Our little group of eight had chosen a newer, independent Iceland tour company, meaning we had the pleasure of allowing Sven to show us the cliff sides, waterfalls, mountains, and glaciers of the Snaefellsnes Peninsula. At the end of a long, cold, wet, and wonderful day, we gathered around a table eating dinner in a farmhouse somewhere in the barren lava fields of Snæfellsnes.

Once inside, Sven removed a couple of his many warm layers, revealing seven ravens tattooed on his forearm. After entertaining us with some stories of elaborate pranks he used to play on his coworkers, everyone became engaged in side conversations. I asked him about the tattoo.

He tells me that in Norse mythology, the raven can be a symbol of death — of a loved one lost, watching over you.

“There were eight of us,” he said, referring to his group of friends during his time as a search-and-rescue operative. “I’m the only one still alive.”

“I have a tattoo like that, too,” I said.

–

Many people regard international travel as glamorous, free-spirited, and privileged. But if you get beyond the standard tourist experiences and gap-year clichés, there is a lot to be learned from it. Mark Twain, the original American travel writer, once wrote: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”

For me, travel required a measure of courage and a desire for adventure. But in return, it offered fulfillment and encouraged perspective, even as it redefined the importance of home.

The Truth Is Out There

Sarah Honosky | April 5, 2019

Topics: Mutual UFO Network, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, RVA 36, RVA Magazine, Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence, SETI, Steven Greer, UFO Club of Virginia, ufology, UFOs

The Universe Beckons: In Virginia, Ufologists Search Confidently For Life Outside Earth

*This article originally appeared in RVA Mag #36, on the streets now at all your favorite spots.

I want to believe. It’s the refrain of a generation, the innate human desire for something more. Everyone has a UFO story, and astronomer Seth Shostak of SETI (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) says the fascination is hardwired into us.

“I get phone calls every day from people who are seeing things in the sky, and believe that they are alien craft,” said Shostak. “That’s because one-third of the population thinks that’s true: that the aliens are here, sailing the skies.”

My own fascination started when my mom dropped the news at the dinner table: apparently, my sleepy hometown of Crozet, Virginia is home to more than peach orchards, cow pastures, and microbreweries. On the outskirts of town lives acclaimed-Ufologist Steven Greer. Greer is the founder of the Sirius Disclosure project, a group working to expose the extraterrestrial intelligence that, according to the project’s website, “has been visiting planet Earth for decades, if not centuries.”

Best of all was the revelation that my mom had met him, at a dinner party years ago. It’s my favorite image — my rural, librarian mother chatting up the author of Ufology books, DVDs, and documentaries over canapés and locally-crafted beer. The same guy who claims he was given a briefing by former-CIA director James Woolsey, and who has appeared on CBS, BBC, and the Discovery Channel as an expert on all things “alien.”

I was already suspicious about the role of the paranormal in my small town, after participating in RVA Magazine’s inconclusive investigation of Afton’s Swannanoa Palace last year. But the presence of a nationally-known purveyor of the extraterrestrial in our locale is enough for me to be convinced this goes to the top.  

Or maybe my fascination with UFOs started earlier, with grainy X-Files episodes on Netflix, and nights spent straining my neck to look at the night sky, desperate to see something supernatural in the star-speckled blur of the Milky Way.

Or maybe it starts here. Now, with the warning.

It came in an email, one which I received after poking into the Virginia UFO scene. The cautionary sentence was sandwiched between a message about availability and a signature: “This subject can be very dangerous,” I’m warned in faux-typewriter text. “One does not know what they will stumble upon…”

This is my first attempt at contact with the world of modern extraterrestrial study, and it doesn’t disappoint. The polite, if foreboding, heads-up is sent by Jessica Youness — self described Ufologist and theorist, the president and founder of the UFO Club of Virginia.

Youness has made the study of extraterrestrial existence her life’s work, a calling that began while growing up in Minnesota. She was five years old when her parents came home from a trip to Saint Paul, her mother visibly upset.

“She took me aside and she said she had seen something in the sky that she’d never seen before,” said Youness.

It was 1967 in America, where the mid-twentieth century was the height of UFO-mania as burgeoning space travel, alleged government conspiracy, and the infamous Roswell sighting brewed an iconoclastic cocktail of paranoia and extraterrestrial fascination.

Youness was spurred by an interest in astronomy and photography, and references UFO sightings she witnessed while living in Michigan (and now, Virginia Beach), where she founded the UFO Club.

“I went from light research to going full-out and founding the UFO club,” said Youness. “We want to make connections from ancient cultures and civilizations to present day sightings… and if there’s ever an event, we’ll be there to prepare. We’ll know what we’re dealing with.”

Youness conducts lectures centered around UFO preparedness and safety, down to the basics: like stockpiling drinkable water and rations to be ready in the case of an extraterrestrial attack. “No matter if it’s a natural disaster or a celestial disaster,” she said, “humans can’t seem to take care of themselves.”

Though it may sound like a cheesy sci-fi movie, she calls it a practical form of self-preservation — be it from an invasion from the stars, or a natural disaster like tornadoes or hurricanes.

Virginia itself offers the perfect combination of natural landmarks and manmade structures to create close encounters of the third kind. Major airports, naval bases, nuclear facilities, power plants, and military bases all create a draw, said Youness.

While living on the coast, Youness said she and her husband have made sightings both together and separately. “We go down to the ocean a lot, and we see things off the water.”

“Even with all my years of investigating, having different experiences and sightings, when something comes closer to you, when you can get the better picture… that’s when it’s time to stop,” said Youness.

As for the danger, Youness says that sometimes it’s best to leave things to the experts. “There are good and bad extraterrestrials, just like there are good and bad humans,” said Youness.  “And I don’t feel that humans should be sending messages out into space, or trying to telepathically connect with them to bring them [here]. That can be very dangerous.”

Classic X-Files poster, via Pointless Posters

The study of UFOs is often taboo, or at the very least, done in private. Despite the topic being a staple of cult-phenomenon, Youness said many members of the UFO Club don’t want their coworkers and families being privy to their late-night investigations. “It’s not something that the world accepts.”

In many cases, this pursuit is their night job. Take Susan Swiatek, the Virginia state director of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) — one of the oldest and largest UFO research organizations, composed of volunteers who study alleged UFO sightings across the U.S.

While we talked, she pushed a cart around a grocery store, buying supplies for her day job stocking vending machines and micro-markets in Fairfax. Our conversation was intermittently interrupted by the soft sound of Muzak from overhead speakers, the beeping of the checkout line, and a brief debate over the best flavor of La Croix.

“I have my hands full,” said Swiatek. “Most people at MUFON have a day job, and do the UFO stuff on the side.”

Swiatek has been with MUFON for over 40 years, and is a member of the national board alongside her husband. Established in 1969, the organization boasts of four thousand members nationwide, with chapters in every state.

“UFOs are my first love,” said Swiatek. Like Youness, her interest started young. Spurred on by the cases of extraterrestrial interest that punctuated the 60s, it was the mystery of the Betty Hill case that drew her in. The “Hill Abduction” was the first widely publicized report of an alien abduction in the U.S. The story surrounded a rural New Hampshire couple, who claimed they were kidnapped by aliens in September of 1961.

As always, it began with a bright light in the sky — as did Swiatek’s own sighting, off the side of a Fairfax highway in broad daylight. “It looked like a gas burner in the sky… an oval circle of blue flame.”

As director of MUFON’s Virginia chapter, it’s Swiatek’s job to log, track, and investigate these UFO sightings. She manages teams of civilian investigators, whose ultimate goal is to collect and analyze UFO data and to discover the origin of the phenomenon. It’s a vein of work that relies on shaky cell phone footage and a plethora of false starts.

“The phenomena doesn’t really behave,” said Swiatek.  “It’s not like any other thing… you can’t predict what the field is going to do. It’s not that easy.”

Thanks to the geography — lakes, mountains, and prime oceanside real estate — Swiatek tells me that Virginia is the ideal breeding ground for UFO activity.

“We have a little bit of everything to attract them. It’s like a microcosm. And of course, we have the big government and military presence in our state, more so than others.”

Swiatek directed me to a story of a UFO sighting in Richmond from 2017, where a witness reported watching and videotaping a cylinder-shaped object hovering over a neighbor’s home. There’s another report from Chesapeake of a triangle-shaped object, flying at a height of 500 feet which appeared to cloak itself and disappear. The lists of reported incidents are nearly endless, and Swiatek says some cases get very involved, while others are easily dismissed — a trick of the light, or a classic case of The Boy Who Cried UFO at the moon.

Though the study of UFOs is a side job for Youness and Swiatek, Shostak has made a living watching the stars. He’s a senior astronomer at the SETI institute, a research organization whose mission is to explore the nature of life in the universe.

Shostak is a NoVA native who began his search for intelligent life at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville. Though he was paid to study galaxies, in his free moments he would point the radio antennas in the direction of the black holes and planets, hoping to pick up a signal that would change his career.

“The universe beckons,” Shostak wrote in a 2015 editorial for The New York Times. He questions transmitting our messages into the cosmos, for fear of who could be listening.

Shostak ricocheted from Virginia to Europe, and finally to California in 1988: where he became entangled with the newly conceived SETI Institute, before it was even a whisper between Jodi Foster and Matthew McConaughey in 1997 sci-fi flick, Contact.

The SETI institute is a key research contractor for both NASA and the National Science Foundation. It employs more than 130 scientists, educators, and administrative staff. Work at the SETI Institute surrounds three centers: the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe (research), the Center for Education, and the Center for Outreach.

While SETI was originally created to find intelligent life in space, these days a majority of the scientists are more concerned with astrobiology — the study of all life beyond earth, encompassing a wide range of topics, including astronomy, geology, biology, and sociology.

“There’s all this real estate. Could it be that it’s all just sterile? Or does some of it have life?” said Shostak, of potentially-habitable planets like the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. “And, of course, that’s what we’re trying to find out.”

As far as our chances of finding life goes, Shostak is optimistic. Our technology and knowledge of astronomy is more advanced than any culture before us.

“There have been ten or fifteen thousand generations of humans before us; none of them could have found any of this life,” said Shostak. “The neanderthals had a very limited space program.”

In the end, It’s Shostak, and not The X Files, that convinces me that everyone truly wants to believe. He calls UFOs “evergreen.” They’re enormously popular with the public, because they give us something to unite against.

A common enemy. A universal mystery. They’re the stand-ins for our human fears, giving us the means to look into the vastness of space and to compartmentalize the intricacies of our own earthbound problems.

“It’s something that astronomy and physics can actually tell you,” said Shostak. “The stars will all burn out. The galaxy will turn into big black holes. These are things that are going to happen.”

UFOs are a universal fascination — whether it’s a life’s work, a hobby, or an idle pastime. Despite its association with fringe conspiracy, it’s a study legitimized among many major news sources.

See the The New York Times December 2017 exclusive on a secret Pentagon program investigating the phenomenon, or video released by the Defense Department’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program of an encounter between a Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet and an unknown object.

See an article published last month by The Washington Post about a top Harvard Astronomer, Avi Loeb, who theorized an extraterrestrial craft may be among us and became what the article calls “perhaps the most academically-distinguished E.T. enthusiast of his time.”

These theories, suspicions, and studies exist at every tier of our society. From national organizations to local clubs, and to my small hometown — where a ufologist can make a career in the foothills of the Blue Ridge; estranged among cow pastures, copious wineries, and good ol’ rural Virginia.

Despite our hometown connection, I should have you know that Steven Greer declined to comment for this article.

For all the talk of aliens, this is what makes us so entirely human. That, amid everything — amid logic, skeptics, and grainy, inconclusive photographs; amid debunked abductions, dramatized 90s sci-fi television, and the radio silence from space that meets our calls — we are drawn to the stars in search of fundamental truths.

Or, at the very least, a spaceship.

RVA #36 Is On The Streets Now!

RVA Staff | April 1, 2019

Topics: Abigail Larson, art, Chris Visions, Culture, gayrva, Michael Millions, music, RVA 36, RVA Global, rva mag print edition, RVA Magazine

Spring is here, and so is this year’s first issue of RVA Magazine!

This week, RVA Magazine #36 is on the stands all over town, welcoming spring with our first brand-new edition of 2019. It’s chock full of arts, culture, music, politics, news, and more. From across the state to right here at home, RVA #36 brings you the first-rate coverage of central Virginia’s street-level culture that you have come to expect over RVA Mag’s 14 years of existence.

Richmond’s artistic community is drawing a lot of attention this year, and in this issue, we dug into the stories behind the art. From longtime local fave Chris Visions, who has caught the world’s eye with his work on Marvel’s Spider-Verse, to gothic princess Abigail Larson, who is currently involved in the creation of Neil Gaiman’s latest Sandman project, we’ve got some serious heavy hitters to introduce you to in this issue.

Richmonders getting out and exploring the world is also a big theme this issue. From local hip-hop sensation Michael Millions’s improbable experience performing in small-town Kentucky to our own Madelyne Ashworth’s travels around Europe and Asia, we bring the unique perspective of our home city to events all around the world.

There’s a lot more in store as well, from a GayRVA report on the queer resistance movement in rural Appalachia to an exploration of independent filmmaking in the river city with the creators of upcoming feature Last Call, which was filmed on location at Richmond’s own The Answer.

All of that is in store for you when you grab your very own copy of RVA #36, available in all your favorite local businesses around town. Get yours now… they’re going fast!

RVA Magazine’s Best Stories of 2018

RVA Staff | December 31, 2018

Topics: 2018 in Review, happy new year, holidays, new year, RVA Magazine

The year is coming to a close, and RVA Magazine is wrapping up another year of Commonwealth culture. With Virginians from right here in Richmond to our neighbors traveling through the state and across the world, we’ve been on the beat to tell your stories wherever we can — and tell the story of life in Virginia in 2018.

We’ve wrapped up your favorite reads from this year to take a glance back at where we’ve been before we say cheers to the new year.

Stay gold, Richmond.

  1. Opinion: Michelle Wolf’s Performance at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner is White Lady Goals
  2. It Seems The Rent Is Too Damn High For Some In Carytown
  3. The Circuit Arcade Bar’s Mural Whitewashed Days After Going Up
  4. FYI Richmond, This Is What a Dive Bar Looks Like
  5. Vintage Shop Closes Amid Sexual Assault Allegations
  6. Where Will We Live When The Entire City’s Been Gentrified?
  7. Misogyny in Virginia’s Underground Music Scene
  8. This Facebook Group Boycotting the Black Panther Film is Getting Trolled Hilariously Hard
  9. Hardcore Legends Sheer Terror Take The Proud Boys Down A Notch
  10. Body-Cam Footage of Marcus Peters’ Shooting Released by Richmond Police Department
  11. The Politicians Who Take Money from The NRA in Virginia
  12. Dave Brat’s Former Communications Manager Endorses Spanberger, Rejects Brat’s “Divisiveness”
  13. Macaulay Culkin Is Not Home Alone This Christmas, Thanks to Google… And Richmond
  14. Tank Tweets and other Tank News from Richmond
  15. Excessive Force Reported Against Richmond Police Department After Detaining Autistic Teen
  16. Racial Tensions Grow In Virginia Beach As College Beach Weekend Starts Tonight
  17. 2-Step Tinder: Hardcore Bros Looking For Love in Richmond
  18. United Daughters of the Confederacy in Uproar Over Encyclopedia Virginia Entry
  19. Burned By Publix Takeover, Carytown Burgers & Fries Isn’t Going Down Without a Fight
  20. Beyond The Stereotypes: A More Inclusive Look At Richmond Moms
  21. Mocking Immigrant Children is a New Low, Even for The Richmond Times-Dispatch
  22. Why Richmond Still Rules Virginia
  23. Heated Over Proposed Meal Tax Hike, Restaurateurs Form Lobbying Group
  24. The Real People’s Tacos: A Journey Through Southside’s Hidden Gems
  25. Secret Kitchens: A Slice of Richmond’s Underground Food Scene

Just in Time For Christmas, RVA #35 Hits The Streets Today

RVA Staff | December 20, 2018

Topics: arts, beer, Culture, food, music, politics, print edition, richmond, RVA, RVA 35, RVA Global, RVA Magazine, Virginia News, Winter 2018

RVA Magazine closes out its 13th year curating culture across the Commonwealth.

This week, RVA Magazine #35 is fresh to the stands, closing out 2018 with a brand-new edition full of arts, culture, music, politics, news and more. From across the state to right here at home, RVA #35 tells the stories of Virginians and wraps up the year with the Commonwealth’s best.

Here in Richmond, hip hop is heating up, and this issue brings you the stories and photos that’ll give you an inside scoop on the scene’s growing momentum. However, it’s not all good news for the RVA music scene, as long-running, well-beloved venue Strange Matter closes its doors. We bring you a fond farewell from the musicians and music fans of this city.

Meanwhile, we’re delving into the always-fertile world of #rvadine with the latest updates from the world-dominating craft beer community of the river city, as well as an in-depth look at the women who are redefining what it means to be head chef at one of the city’s top restaurants.

The city’s visual artists also get some shine, from the digital neuromancy of artist and photographer Chris Smart to the powerful hip hop-focused work of muralist Nils Westergard.

Beyond the River City, we’ve traveled from the shipyards of Norfolk to the mountains of Appalachia to tell the stories of the Commonwealth. From the desk of our sister site, GayRVA, we get a report on Norfolk’s Knight Hawks, an old-school leather club finding their way into the 21st century. We also take a close look at Appalachia, where communities are attempting to move beyond their economic dependence on coal mining and create a sustainable future for rural western Virginia.

Don’t sleep — grab a copy around town. RVA #35 is on the streets now.

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